Toni Morrison famously said, “If you are free, you need to free somebody else.” That idea is omnipresent in the documentary chronicling her life and career, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Through interviews with Morrison’s editors, colleagues and close friends—and the author herself—the film offers an intimate look into the profound impact Morrison’s work had on literature, the United States and the globe. In a world where whiteness dominates the literary canon, she never apologized for centering Black stories. The film shows how she amplified other Black voices through her work as a publisher and colleague. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am is a wonderful glimpse into the life of an author who used her freedom to free others and to display through her prose the world that we share. (120 min.)
Available on Amazon and Hulu | High School and Professional Development
Enjoyable and educational, the 12 episodes of Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices introduce a range of #OwnVoices children’s books about Black identity. Hosted by Marley Dias, each episode features Black entertainers, activists or authors reading powerful stories about understanding race, finding joy and love within ourselves, fighting injustice and more. With stunning illustrations and captivating questions featured throughout, young viewers will feel as if they’ve been transported into these magical stories. (5-12 min.)
Available on Netflix | Elementary School
Morgan Jon Fox’s short, The One You Never Forget, lasts only eight minutes, but each second is packed with relatable teenage feelings. The film follows Carey, a young Black boy getting ready for his first formal dance. His parents use she/her pronouns to refer to his date. But despite those assumptions, Carey’s dad models acceptance when a white boy named Hunter shows up. For students, this film opens a door for talking about how language can impose societal expectations and how small actions can make people feel welcome—even at something as stressful and awkward as a school dance. (8 min.)
Available on Vimeo | Middle and High School
“If you don’t walk away with the whole story, you’re going to walk away with a fairy tale,” Wampanoag journalist Paula Peters says. Peters appears alongside award-winning historians, professors and scholars in the new short film The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors. The film introduces the often-overshadowed history of Indigenous slavery, which began over a century before the first enslaved Africans were brought to these shores. Acknowledgements of the stolen land on which the United States sits highlights this history. Connecting the facts with deeply personal stories, The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors is both a call to teach complex history and a welcome complement to the Teaching Hard History: American Slavery framework. (12 min.)
Available at tolerance.org/forgottenslavery | Middle and High School and Professional Development
Black Boys features the voices of Black men and boys of all ages, and those who love and support them, as they discuss the ways they view the world and the ways the world views them. Activist athletes, journalists, educators and musicians provide commentary on the journeys Black boys and men take while living their lives. Interspersed with beautifully compelling scenes of Black boys addressing their hopes and dreams are several horrific, tragically familiar images of state-sanctioned brutality. The film, a Never Whisper Justice production, posits the power of love as the means to celebrate the gifts that Black boys and men bring to the world. (95 min.)
Available on Peacock | High School and Professional Development
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